Andrea Polito, the photographer put on blast by “social media expert” Neely Moldovan over a contract dispute, may be considering legal action. According to a statement her attorney made to NBC 5:

We will seek justice and do what is necessary to protect Andrea, and are in the process of investigating claims for defamation, business disparagement, and tortuous interference.

Her attorney went on to say “Andrea may not ever be able to repair the damage caused by the Moldovans”, and in a formal statement claims “the Moldovans have engaged in a public smear campaign to ruin Andrea Polito’s reputation”.

Neely and Andrew “denied making some online comments that were attributed to them and said someone else wrote them after setting up fake online profiles using their names” and say they never said they hoped the story would ‘go viral’. Andrew stated “Neither of us ever hoped her business is ruined nor do we even want that”. They have apparently hired attorneys of their own.

On Wednesday Andrea informed NBC 5 that she had hired an attorney, saying “The Moldovans’ story and the statements they have made in numerous outlets have caused me great harm, personally and professionally…a follow up story would likely only lead to further coverage of inaccurate and untruthful statements”. She then referred NBC 5 reporters to her attorney.

Neely, the most special snowflake to ever go unjustly ignored in the blizzard of blogland, has apparently spent the past week slamming her wedding photographer all over creation. Taking her ‘story’ straight to NBC, Neelykins got herself interviewed for that thar real teevee.

Though the photographer, Andrea Polito, responded to requests from NBC describing the situation and offering proof in her defense, media outlets around the country went with the “wronged bride” angle. This of course caused thousands of people to pile on Andrea as some kind of wedding dream destroyer – even taking to her Yelp page to post AIDS jokes – while Neely allegedly went around liking commentary from her supporters (Update: Neely now claims this was not her and must have been an impersonator).

Finally Andrea posted a response on her own blog in an attempt to slow the persecution, stating there are emails which prove Neely’s claims false.

The story you are not hearing is that it was only last week when the bride claimed to realize that, per our contract, welcome packet, and emails, she would not get her wedding images until her album was completed. This conflicts with the numerous emails in which we clearly reiterated what is stated in the contract…

After a few days the tide began to turn in Andrea’s favor. Suddenly Neely did a 180 on trash talking people.

Neely had also posted tweets and instagrams about ‘justice’ being ‘served’, now all suddenly deleted after whispers of a lawsuit began going around. But she did of course post a nice Everyone’s Just Jealous quote to replace the removed ones, because that’s how bloggers cope.

Head over to the official voting page to see the final categories and nominees. Commenting is closed on the voting page, but you can head over to the Members Only forum thread to discuss your picks or who you think should have been included, or comment here on this post.

Happy voting!

Edit: I have enabled comments on the voting page per hamcat suggestion.

XOJane is trying to post better content lately. As part of that noble effort, they are sharing stories sent in by suicidal teenagers. In a piece titled “How Do I Stop Hating Myself?” a kid asks advice from the Hivers on how to deal with problems that should really be dealt with by a professional.

I’m 17 and I had my first, and so far only, boyfriend when I was 13…A few days before my sixteenth birthday I got a text from a friend of his saying that he was dead. I knew he killed himself and I keep blaming myself for it.

The writer goes on to say they “can’t stop thinking if I had done more he’d still be here today” and adds they “haven’t self harmed in awhile, but this still gets to me so much so that thoughts of suicide flood my head because I just want to stop hurting and blaming myself”.

Does anyone else wonder wtf was going through the XOEditors’ minds when they posted this? Rather than responding “wow this is probably something you should seek counseling for, here are some resources”, they posted it for ragebait and pageviews. Welcome to ‘legitimate online media’, folks.

It’s time once again for the most important awards on the intarwebs – the GOMIs! Here are the starting categories for 2015.

Best Flounce

Biggest WTF

Most Insane Fangirling

Biggest Decline

Most Improved

And of course, the Lifetime Failchievement award. Now it’s up to you to suggest up to five additional categories which will be added to the GOMI Awards voting area. You can also nominate bloggers for the above categories, and for any suggested categories.

And if you’re wondering what happened last year, you can check out the results here. Happy nominating, hams!